Got a healthy basset? Seems like there is always something...

8181 Views 34 Replies 17 Participants Last post by jaleely, Sep 6, 2011

jaleely

Discussion Starter · Sep 2, 2011

I'd like to see a post of some of the Healthy bassets out there. I'm beginning to think its quite a hard thing to find in this breed. I am just sorta grumpy and down today, but it seems like there is always the big C or glaucoma, or genetic issues. My own guy gets shots every other week for his legs, and constantly battles skin issues and mange. Even my beagle has a constant ear infection we've spent at least $1,000 on over the past year trying to fix.

I want to hear about a basset who lives a nice long healthy life! Tell me a tale of how healthy your dog is!

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Mikey T

· #6 · Sep 2, 2011 (Edited)

Toughy livef to 12 without health issue other than the cancer that he succombed to

Mariah is 10 her only issue was a skin cancer that was easily surgical exicised no follow-up treatment necessary.

One think to keep in mind about cancer while many oncologist claim and believe a cure for all forms can be had in our lifetimes that cancer is by its very nature programed into every living cell of every creature it is a inheoirent part of the biology of the planet. To think we can change that is being nieve IMHO..

[url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/11/08/101108crbo_books_shapin?currentPage=2]Cancer World

The more science tells us about the cancer cell, the more it resembles us. It wants to grow and multiply, as we do, but it doesn’t know how to stop. “Cancer’s life is a recapitulation of the body’s life, its existence a pathological mirror of our own,” Mukherjee writes. “Down to their innate molecular core, cancer cells are hyperactive, survival-endowed, scrappy, fecund, inventive copies of ourselves.”

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Mikey T

· #11 · Sep 2, 2011

The statistics often quoted are dubious at best

Responsible Breeding Management of Genetic Disease

Jerold S Bell DVM, Department of Clinical Sciences, Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary

Medicine, N. Grafton, MA.

Adding to the complexity of breeding is the expansion of planned cross-breedings (designer breeds) to produce offspring. Therefore, the discussion is no longer between pure-bred and crossbred, but between purposely-bred and random-bred dogs.

There is a general misconception that mixed-breed dogs are inherently free of genetic disease. This may be true for rare, breed-related disorders; but the common genetic diseases that are seen across all breeds are seen with the same frequency in mixed-breeds. A mixed-breed dog with hip arthritis has no less a case of hip dysplasia than a pure-bred dog. The only difference is that conscientious breeders test and label their dogs as dysplastic prior to the onset of clinical signs. I do not see a difference between the relative frequencies of old pure-bred dogs versus old mixedbreed
dogs with hip arthritis requiring arthritis pain medication.

Testing for inherited hypothyroidism (for thyroglobulin autoantibodies by Michigan State University) shows 10.7% of 55,053 tested mixed-breed dogs to be affected. The average percentage of affected dogs for all pure breeds is 7.5%. This does not tell us that mixed-breed dogs are more prone to autoimmune thyroiditis: More mixed-breed dogs are tested based on clinical signs. However, these results show us that this hereditary disorder is seen frequently in both pure-bred and mixed-breed dogs. To those that feel that this disorder is not genetic, we look at the historical breed predilections for the disorder. Those breeds with the highest genetic propensity for autoimmune thyroiditis remain high over the years (example: 31.4% of English
Setters tested), and those breeds with the lowest propensity remain low (example: 1.1 % of FrenchBulldogs). Selection based on thyroid testing (and in the future direct genetic tests for liability genes) should reduce the frequency of this disorder.

The most common inherited disorders for all dog breeds according to the AKC Canine Health Foundation are: cancer, eye disease, epilepsy, hip dysplasia, hypothyroidism, heart disease, autoimmune disease, allergies, patellar luxation, and renal dysplasia. With the exception of renal dysplasia, all of these genetic conditions are routinely seen in mixed-breed dogs.

The problem is most such studies do not include the genetic diseases that are nonexistent as well in certain breeds . the nature of the bottle neck, limited foundation stock in pure bred dogs is they tend to exagerate some getent problems but at they same time eliminate other when looking a t the whole there really is not a difference between the pure bred population and the mix breed population in the occurance of genetic diseases.

I own one of soundtract's dogs and the only thing she has been treated for is a broken toe nail.

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Mikey T

· #12 · Sep 2, 2011 (Edited)

The median age at death was "8.5 years for all mixed breed dogs, and 6.7 years for all pure breed dogs" in the study.

Which makes the study dubious given the low median age of death compared to the General pupulation.

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